Hello from Florida

Hi! I've been a tea lover for many years, but I've just gotten around to looking for an online community. The town I live in -- Gainesville, Florida, USA -- isn't great for tea, unfortunately. Until recently I've been limited to Twinings Irish Breakfast tea and some flavored teas from the nearest tearoom (which is in another town, 45 minutes away).

For hot tea I enjoy Formosa Oolong, Lapsang Souchong (both of which I have a good supply of thanks to Upton Tea), and spiced chai. I keep hearing good things about Assam and Darjeeling teas, but I haven't gotten around to ordering any yet. The only Darjeeling I've had was in teabags and was really dreadful. I've tried a Ceylon and liked it, but I haven't bought any that weren't flavored with fruit.

I like iced tea a lot, too, living in the way-too-hot-and-sunny state of Florida. I prefer flavored teas for this, as I don't like to add sugar, and to that end I just bought eight samplers from Adagio. (The blackberry is divine. And aren't those sampler tins adorable?) I've been getting strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry loose teas from the aforementioned tearoom, but they're pretty expensive. In addition, they're frequently out of what I want when I go for afternoon tea every couple of months. (I'm always trying different teas when I go; it's only the fruit teas I want to buy for home that I have a problem getting, because they're popular.)

The weirdest tea I've had was the one I made for iced this weekend. My brother-in-law loves lychee fruit, and he gave me some of his lychee black tea to try. Strange stuff. Kinda like drinking fabric softener, but tastier. (Not that I've ever consumed laundry products; it just tastes like fabric softener smells.) It grew on me pretty quickly, and I need to make a trip to the Asian market he buys it from to get some for myself.

Anyway, glad to be here and nice to meet you all. I look forward to learning more about my favorite beverage!

Sal, have you ever been to the Strawberry Tearoom in Starke? It's really nice, if a little on the girly side. I love the place. I've heard that Lollicup over on SW 34th has some different teas, although when I've gone it's been just for bubble tea or slushes. Cute little place. I need to go back and see about their tea selections...